This article was written on 08/05/26.
This week we marked an important milestone when we celebrated lighting and technical engineer, Steve Miller’s, tenth year working with the theatre.
Steve plays a crucial role as part of the technical team at the Marine. Often behind the scenes, sitting in the tech box up above the audience at the back of the auditorium, he skilfully oversees the lighting, and frequently sound, for many of the gigs, comedy nights, and plays that take place at the theatre.
Steve began his career in the theatrical world when he started working as a stage manager in London in 1991. After years of being a postman, it was quite a change, but one that, as a long-time theatre lover, he took to immediately. Indeed, after a few stage management stints, Steve became particularly interested in lighting, and it wasn’t before long that he had completed a course in theatre lighting at the famed Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
With this training under his belt, Steve went on to light countless shows including two different versions of Stephen Flaherty’s musical, ‘A Man of No Importance’, both on the West End, and Gilbert and Sullivan’s, ‘The Pirates of Penzance’, with which he later went on tour to Australia.
During this time, he also served as technical manager at three different London venues. Beginning at the Man in the Moon Theatre on the Kings Road in Chelsea, he then went on to the Hoxton Hall Theatre in East London, before coming to the end of his time in the city at the Union Theatre in Southwark, where he worked for 13 years.
When Steve relocated to the South West in 2012, he was determined not to leave the world of theatre behind. Following a short period of running his own touring theatre company, he began working with Equity, the performing arts and entertainment trade union. It was this that ultimately led him to the Marine.
After visiting the Marine Theatre with an Equity project, a show commemorating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, Steve soon got to know the team at the theatre and, handily, they were looking for a technical engineer to work with them. The rest is history so they say!
From micing up big name actors, comedians, and musicians, to lighting innumerable Marine Youth Theatre shows, and working with Su Gilroy on delivering the ever-popular summer rep season of plays, there’s not a lot that Steve hasn’t done at the Marine. He works tirelessly and is a much loved and valued member of the theatre.
Here’s to another ten years!
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